Etymologically
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Wert

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Pronunciation

  • /veːrt/, [veːɐ̯t], [vɛɐ̯t][1]

Forms

Wert m (genitive Wertes or Werts, plural Werte)[1] The noun was neuter in Old High German; the masculine appears in Middle High German, probably on the model of Kauf and Preis.[2][3] The neuter is still found here and there in the 16th and 17th centuries.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German wert, inherited from Old High German werd, inherited from Proto-Germanic *werþą (“worth, price”), the adjective wert used as a noun, a step taken in all the Germanic languages.[5][2][1] The same noun is Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸 (wairþ), Old Norse verð, Old English weorþ, Old Frisian werth and Old Saxon werth, beside the adjective 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐍃 (wairþs), *werþaz (“worthy”).[5][6][7] Related words are Dutch waard, English worth and Swedish värd.[5] The final /t/ of the uninflected form was carried into the inflected ones, while the older /d/ survives in Würde and würdig.[1][8]

Its further origin is disputed.[8] Kluge, Pfeifer and the Grimms' dictionary connect it with Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn”), the root of werden, through a sense “turned towards, set against”, hence “having an equivalent”;[5][2][8] Pfeifer and the Grimms compare -wärts, Latin versus (“towards, against”) and Old Irish frith- (“against”), and the parallel of pretium (“price, value”).[2][8] Duden calls the link only possible,[9] and Kroonen leaves the origin open.[6] Kluge also mentions Welsh gwerth (“price”) and Avestan auuarətā- (“valuable object, property”);[5] Kroonen and the Grimms take the Welsh word as a loan from Germanic.[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German werd is recorded from the end of the 8th century, in glosses and the Monsee fragments, then in the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[10][11][5] It meant “value, price, estimate”;[11][10] the Grimms find the sense “price” first, then “standing, esteem” and “quality”.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German wert covered the purchase price, an article of value, goods, rank and honour, and esteem.[2] Until the early 19th century the main sense was “price”; in money matters Paul cites the value of banknotes from 1561, and Marx made the word a term of economics, the labour embodied in a commodity.[4] In mathematics it came to mean the value of a quantity.[4] The sense “quality, usefulness” was applied to persons from Middle High German on and spread in the 18th century, giving phrases such as moralischer Wert and innerer Wert.[4] The Grimms note that it became a key term of economics and philosophy, whose content was often disputed.[3]

Derivatives were formed late: werten goes back to Old High German werdōn (8th century), but abwerten dates from the 18th century and became common in the 20th, bewerten from the second half of the 19th, entwerten in its modern sense from the first half of the 19th and verwerten from the 19th.[2][9] wertlos appears at the beginning of the 19th century, wertvoll in its first half, and Wertpapier and Werturteil later in the 19th.[9] The word was borrowed into Czech and Slovak as vert “value, price”.[12]

Timeline

  • Late 8th century – Old High German werd in glosses and the Monsee fragments.[10][5]
  • Middle High German – the masculine gender appears beside the neuter.[2][3]
  • 1561 – Wert is used of the value of banknotes.[4]
  • 16th–17th century – last neuter uses.[3]
  • 18th century – abwerten is first recorded.[2]
  • Early 19th century – wertlos and wertvoll appear.[9]
  • Second half of the 19th century – bewerten and Werturteil.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The price or market value of something: Der Wert des Grundstücks hat sich verdoppelt.[13][1]
  2. (Marxism) The social labour embodied in a commodity, measured by the working time needed to produce it.[13][4]
  3. (plural) Valuable objects, assets: Bei dem Brand gingen große Werte verloren.[13]
  4. Importance, usefulness or quality, the worth of a person or thing;[13][1] Wert auf etwas legen “to set store by something”.[13][1]
  5. (often plural) A moral or social ideal, a value held by a society: christliche Werte.[1][14]
  6. A number or measured quantity, the result of a measurement; the value of a variable.[1][14][4]
  7. A postage stamp of a given face value.[14]

Word family

  • werten
  • Wertung
  • abwerten
  • aufwerten
  • bewerten
  • entwerten
  • verwerten
  • wertlos
  • wertvoll
  • Wertpapier
  • Werturteil
  • gleichwertig
  • minderwertig
  • vollwertig

Usage notes

Kluge lists a separate Wert (also Werd, Wört) “river island”, a variant of Werder, from Middle High German wert and Old High German werid, whose origin is unclear.[5] Lexer records the Middle High German word as “island, peninsula, raised dry land between marshes”.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  3. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 29, 460
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 983
  6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 29, 444
  9. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 930
  10. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 381
  12. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  13. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  14. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  15. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 796